Burying the Dead
Since most families could not afford the expense of recovering their soldiers’ bodies for burial at home, the hundreds of thousands of Civil War dead overwhelmed existing cemeteries, requiring the creation of new burial grounds. Arlington National Cemetery, now one of the most famous American cemeteries, was located purposely on General Lee’s family estate by Union Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs in 1864. In his diary Meigs wrote on June 10: “To Cemetery Soldiers Home. This is filled & being trimmed & decorated. Neatly laid out graves grassed with [indecipherable] white head boards & a gate lodge it is a very pleasant Cnty cemetery about 6000 soldiers are buried at it. Now all burials from Wash are made at Arlington.” Thousands of burials did take place in Arlington during the war, and Meigs joined their ranks in 1892.
Since most families could not afford the expense of recovering their soldiers’ bodies for burial at home, the hundreds of thousands of Civil War dead overwhelmed existing cemeteries, requiring the creation of new burial grounds. Arlington National Cemetery, now one of the most famous American cemeteries, was located purposely on General Lee’s family estate by Union Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs in 1864. In his diary Meigs wrote on June 10: “To Cemetery Soldiers Home. This is filled & being trimmed & decorated. Neatly laid out graves grassed with [indecipherable] white head boards & a gate lodge it is a very pleasant Cnty cemetery about 6000 soldiers are buried at it. Now all burials from Wash are made at Arlington.” Thousands of burials did take place in Arlington during the war, and Meigs joined their ranks in 1892.